Slides for a talk on "How Social Media Can Enhance Your Research Activities" given by Brian Kelly, Innovation Advocate at Cetis, University of Bolton at the IRISS Research Unbound conference in Glasgow on 21 February 2014. See http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/events/iriss-2014-how-social-media-can-enhance-your-research-activities/

1. Event hashtag:
#researchunbound
How Social Media Can Enhance
Your Research Activities
Presentation by Brian Kelly, UKOLN on 25 October 2012
for an Open Access Week event21 February 2014 at the
Talk by Brian Kelly, Cetis on at the University of Exeter
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IRISS Research Unbound conference

2. Event hashtag: #researchunbound
Using Social Media to Enhance
Your Research Activities
Brian Kelly
Contact Details
Innovation Advocate
Cetis
University of Bolton
Bolton, UK
Email: ukwebfocus@gmail.com
Twitter: @briankelly
Cetis Web site: http://www.cetis.ac.uk/
Blog: http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/
Slides and further information available at
http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/events/iriss-2014-how-social-media-canenhance-your-research-activities/

3. Idea from Cameron Neylon
You are free to:
copy, share, adapt, or re-mix;
photograph, film, or broadcast;
blog, live-blog, or post video of
this presentation provided that:
You attribute the work to its author and respect the rights
and licences associated with its components.
Slide Concept by Cameron Neylon, who has waived all copyright and related or neighbouring rights. This slide only CCZero.
Social Media Icons adapted with permission from originals by Christopher Ross. Original images are available under GPL at:
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3
http://www.thisismyurl.com/free-downloads/15-free-speech-bubble-icons-for-popular-websites

4. Introduction
About Me
Evidence!
Brian Kelly:
• Innovation Advocate at Cetis, University of Bolton
• Formerly UK Web Focus at UKOLN, University of
Bath
• Prolific blogger (1,250+ posts since Nov 2006)
• User of various devices to support professional
(and social) activities
Research profile:
• Peer-reviewed papers published on Web
accessibility, standards, preservation, …
• Largest no. of downloaded papers from Bath IR
• Highly-cited papers in Web accessibility (e.g. W4A)
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5. Introduction
About This Talk: Aims
Abstract:
In this talk Brian Kelly will summarise the benefits
which can be gained from use of social media to
support research activities.
The paper is based on evidence from personal
experiences* in using social media to engage with
fellow researchers, meet new collaborators and
co-authors and enhance awareness and impact of
research papers.
*
Your mileage may vary! Talk describes personal successes in a
specific discipline area.
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6. PAPER
Accompanying paper
available on:
• ResearchGate
• Academia.edu
• Opus, University of
Bath IR
Share with your friends
and provide real-time
peer-reviewing:
http://bit.ly/sra13kelly
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7. Introduction
Structure of the Talk
About the talk
• About you
• Why is social media relevant to researchers?
• Examples of the benefits:
 Developing one‟s professional networks
 Engaging with peers and practitioners
 Maximising readership
• Implementation plan for peer-reviewed paper
• Understanding and addressing concerns
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8. About You
What Do You Already Do?
Who:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Has a smart phone?
Has a tablet device?
Uses it for work-related purposes (beyond phone calls)?
Has a social media account (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, …)?
Uses it for work related purposes?
Who has used a mobile device for work-related purposes
in bed?!
Tweeting during this talk is encouraged, but try to keep
disruptions to others to a minimum
Event hashtag: #researchunbound
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9. About You
Do You Want to Change the World?
“Hitherto, philosophers have sought to
understand the world; the point, however,
is to change it”
X
Do you seek to change the world through your research or
simply understand the world:
• You want to pro-actively market your research
• You want others to market your research
• You have a dispassionate view of your research
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10. Relevance
“It’s About Nodes and Connections”
Cameron Neylon keynote at OR 2012:
“Networks qualitatively change our capacity”
• With only 20% of a community connected
only limited interaction can take place
• This increases drastically as numbers of
connected nodes grows
Examples:
• Phone networks (no use with only 1 user!)
• Galaxy Zoo
• Tweeting at this event
“Filters block. Filters cause
friction”
Need for client-side, not
supply-side filters.
Or “it‟s not an information overload problem, it‟s a filtering problem!”
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11. SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
Web sites
Real
world
Databases
(e.g. IRs)
Directories
Google
(Bing,
DuckDuckGo,
…)
Summary of key approaches:
• Apply various techniques to Web resources to
make resources easier to find in Google, …
• Resources may include organisational Web
suites, third party Web sites, databases, …
• Resources may also include real world objects
and ideas (e.g. your research ideas, …)
• Based on understanding of importance of
Google to end users
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12. Beyond SEO, SMO
Web sites
Real
world
Databases
(e.g. IRs)
Directories
“20% of the iPad users spent
time with their iPad in bed” 2010
Social Services
(Twitter,
Facebook,
Slideshare, …)
Summary of key approaches:
• Make use of social networking services which
people may use of discuss your services
• Services may include
Facebook, LinkedIn, Slideshare, Twitter, …
• No need to touch your Web sites (therefore
useful if you can‟t!)
• Based on understanding of popularity of SNs
and people‟s interests in chatting and sharing
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13. The Evidence
GIVE ME THE EVIDENCE!
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14. My papers in the University of Bath Opus repository
MY PAPERS
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15. My most popular papers in Opus institutional repository
Downloads
Open Access enhances access
Downloads for Brian Kelly
17 Feb 2014
15
Download figures
for my papers

16. My little-read papers in Opus institutional repository
Least Downloaded Papers
Will papers in
a repository
be seldom
seen?
Kelly, B., 1998, The Latest Web Developments,
IRISS 98
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Most downloaded
papers in Bath IR
What can be
learn from
approaches
taken for the
popular and
unpopular
papers?

17. Learning From Success
“Library 2.0: balancing the risks and benefits to maximise the
dividends”, Kelly, B., Bevan, P., Akerman, R., Alcock, J. and Fraser, J.
Program Electronic Library & Information Systems, 43 (3), 2009
• Second most
downloaded paper in
repository (Jan 2014) 
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18. Reasons For Popularity
Paper widely viewed because:
• Dodgy / unethical marketing (spam; link farms, …)
• Quality of paper
• Effective & appropriate use of social media
Monthly downloads for all papers
Blog post published at launch
responsible for initial peak
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19. Beyond the Edge Cases
Little-downloaded paper:
• Uploaded to repository 6 years after paper written
• I was not lead author
• Only PDF version uploaded
• Never blogged about; never tweeted
Most popular paper:
• Available in IR on launch of journal issue
• I was lead author
• Blog post published on day of launch
• Available in PDF, MS Word & HTML formats
• Link to paper subsequently tweeted & retweeted
• About Web 2.0, so likely to be read by bloggers
But what about the majority of papers?
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20. ‹#›

21. Further Evidence
Blog post by Melissa
Terras, 19 April 2012
The findings
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22. The Evidence
WHAT ELSE DO I DO?
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23. Develop New Connections
Developing New Connections
• Tweet sent asking for researchers to
complete survey on use of Web
• Response from @slewth
• Who is she?
 Twitter bio: disability researcher
 Link in bio to her blog
• Blog gives insights which complement
my research
• Followed @slewth and had Twitter chat
Follow-up
• Shall we write a paper?
• Paper written
• Paper accepted
• Paper wins prize for best paper 
See blog posts on “It Started With A Tweet”
and “Winner of John M Slatin Award at W4A 2010”
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24. Encourage Event Amplification
IWMW – an amplified event for practitioners
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25. Who Pays?
Opportunities for remote
audience
See Streaming of IWMW
2012 Plenary Talks – But
Who Pays?, UK Web
Focus blog, 18 Jun 2012
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26. Event Amplification
„Amplified event‟: networked technologies
at events to maximise („amplify‟) ideas
mentioned and subsequent
discussions, including discussions between
event attendees and remote participants.
Talks designed for ease-of-engagement
• Slides on Slideshare & easily found
• Twitter ID on Title slides
OzeWAI 2009 Conference
• Invited keynote talk given in Melbourne, Jan 2009
• Tweets received after talk: “@briankelly enjoyed your presentation
this morning about a holistic approach to accessibility #ozewai” &
“@briankelly Fantastic talk this morning, I will come up and say hi
at lunch ;)”
• We spoke, and they agreed to contribute to a paper. Paper
published 6 months later 
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27. Evaluate Patterns of Use
SocialBro: People in
my network typically
follow 100-500
Twitter users
Use tools such as Socialbro
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28. Evaluate Patterns of Use
SocialBro: people in my
network typically tweet
2-5 times every day
Conclusions: my
community typically follow
500-1,000 users and tweet
up to 5 times/day every day
(possibly in bed!)
1630
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29. Curate Tweets ..
Make use of various
Twitter archiving tools
to have a record of
discussions, resources
shared, potential
connections, …
Twubs archive of #solo12impact
tweets
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30. … And Tell A Story
Storify:
• Used to create a story of an
event
• Manually (or automatically)
select tweets of interest
• Add your own commentary
Works best if there are lots of
tweets to choose from!
See http://storify.com/briankelly/
wikipedia-editing-workshop-at-spoton-2013
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31. The Evidence
BEING PRO-ACTIVE:
AN IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
31

32. W4A 2012 Paper
Case study:
• Paper on “A challenge to web accessibility metrics
and guidelines: putting people and processes first”
given at W4A 2012 conference in Lyon in Apr 2012
Four co-authors agreed:
• To collaborate in raising awareness of paper and
presentation of the paper
How:
• Writing blog posts on or just before conference
• Participate on conference Twitter hashtag (e.g.
responding to comments while speaker is presenting)
Benefits:
• Reaching out to a wider audience based on our 4
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professional networks

33. Preparation
We:
• Uploaded paper to repository so URL was known
• Provided a link to the paper in speaker’s slides
• Uploaded holding slide to Slideshare so URL was
known (slides were finalised shortly before talk)
We could then:
• Agree of who will say what
• Prepare blog posts in advance
• Create short URLs in advance
Examples of approaches to follow
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34. Opus Repository
Paper uploaded to Opus repository
Note lack of social
features for repository:
no discussions or
ability to embed
content and limited
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sharing & metrics
http://opus.bath.ac.uk/29190/

35. Slideshare
Note:
• Sharing icons
• Discussion
(not shown)
• Related content
• Metrics
• Embedability
(not shown)
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Metadata gives context to slides

36. 36
Final slide provides (active) links to related work

37. USE OF SLIDESHARE
“Lies, damned lies & web statistics” – but my third
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most downloaded paper in 2012!
On 18 Apr 2012:
• 1,391 views on
Slideshare
• Other conf. slides
had 3 and 311 views
By 17 Feb 2014:
• 9,619 views on
Slideshare

38. TOPSY AND EVENT HASHTAG event
Buzz around
hashtag captured
by Topsy
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39. TOPSY & DISCUSSION ABOUT SLIDES
Topsy recorded
discussions about slides
Twitter names
suggest
accessibility
interests
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40. TOPSY & DISCUSSION ABOUT PAPER
Topsy recorded
discussions about paper
Note tweets
about event
(25) and
slides (20)
more popular
than paper (7)
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Can highlight paper
after event!

41. Repository Statistics for Paper
Opus repository stats:
• Views began in March
(before conference).
• Largest downloads took
place on 7 March, day
blog post published
(about collaborative
tools for writing paper)
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42. Your papers may be
hosted on your
institutional repository –
but you need „link love‟
THE IR
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43. LinkedIn
•
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44. Academia.edu
ACADEMIA.EDU
Note:
• Links to papers in IR (not uploaded)
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• Importance of tags
Academia.edu users may
find my papers here and
LinkedIn users in LinkedIn.
Why would I make it difficult
for them?

45. Importance of Google
Context:
• Between 50-80% of traffic to IRs are from Google
(may be higher if direct links to PDFs not recorded by
Google Analytics)
What provides „Google juice‟:
• On-page SEO techniques
(structure, writing style, …)
• Links to pages, especially
from highly-ranking sites
What‟s different about IRs?
• Same page structure
• Therefore importance of links
to repository
45

46. What Delivers Google Juice?
Survey of SEO ranking of 24 Russell
Group IRs carried out in Aug 2012.
Findings:
• Google, YouTube, Blogspot, Wikip
edia and Microsoft are highest
ranking domains with links to IRs
Blogspot.com
Wordpress.com
• Blogspot.com & WordPress.com
have significantly larger number of
links to IRs
• Links from institutional domain
(e.g. locally-hosted blogs) provide
little Google juice!
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47. UK Web Focus has links to all papers
UK Web
Focus has
timely
blog posts
about
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papers
Regular
UK Web
summaries of
Focus
papers
blog has
mentioned a
here (where
rotating
people‟s eye
Featured
focusses)
Paper link

48. Current Use of Blogs
Provide a
page for
information
about an
event
Tweet link
to the page
Promote
other useful
resources
(in area eye
looks at)
Have links to
evidence of
conversation
and metrics
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49. BARRIERS
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The Evidence

50. But …
But what about:
•
•
•
•
•
Empowering Users and Institutions: A Risks
and Opportunities Framework for Exploiting
the Social Web, Kelly, B. and Oppenheim, C.
Cultural Heritage Online 2009 conference
Legal, ethical & privacy concerns
My boss doesn‟t approve
My institution doesn‟t approve
It doesn‟t work in my discipline
It doesn‟t work for me
Risks and opportunities framework:
• It‟s not about „social media‟ it‟s about „social media
for a particular purpose‟
• Be clear of potential benefits & associated risks
• Remember the risks of not doing things
• There will be costs (but may be small)
• Adopt risk minimisation strategies
• Base decisions on evidence
• Be aware of biases and subjective factors
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51. The Spectrum of Engagement
Early Adopters
• It‟s new; it looks cool. I‟m in!
Early Mainstream Adopters
• I‟ve been persuaded by arguments. I‟ll try it and
see if it works for me.
Late Adopters
• I upgraded to a smartphone. I‟ll try this Twitter
thing (but just with a small number of friends).
Doubters, Sceptics and Refusenicks
• There‟s no way I’ll ever do it!
• There‟s no way I‟ll let it be done!
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52. Spectrum of Engagement for Teams
Experimentation
• We want someone to evaluate innovative IT
Embedding
• We want to deploy the innovation systematically
Plateau of Productivity
• It‟s just a job. We have policies. We write reports
on metrics. …
Embracing Diversity
• John doesn‟t give presentations (he‟s nervous)
• Jane shouldn‟t write peer-reviewed papers
• Paul shouldn‟t tweets or write blog posts
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53. Health Warning!
Suggestions given can help to enhance the
visibility of one’s research.
Highly visible and popular research is not
necessarily an indication of quality!
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54. Top Ten Tips
1
2
3
4
5
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Be pro-active
Monitor what works for you
Don‟t forget the links
Don‟t forget the Google juice
Develop your network
Encourage feedback and discussion
Understand your network
Know your limits
Seek improvements
Participate
See Top 10 tips on how to make your open access
research visible online, JISC Inform, 35, Winter 2012
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55. ANY QUESTIONS?
Cartoon
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56. Questions?
Any questions, comments, …?
Continue the discussion: blog post about this presentation published at
http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2013/12/06/open-educationalpractices-oep-what-they-mean-for-me-and-how-i-use-them/
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57. Licence and Additional Resources
This presentation, “Using Social Media to Enhance Your Research
Activities” by Brian Kelly, Cetis is licensed under the Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 Licence
Note the licence covers most of the text in this presentation. Quotations
may have other licence conditions.
Images may have other licence conditions. Where possible links are
provided to the source of images so that licence conditions can be found.
Slides and further information available at
http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/events/
iriss-2014-how-social-media-can-enhance-your-research-activities/
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